I wouldn't call it "back to normal".

In addition to the mask mandates, which are more bothersome than you make out (e.g. it's pretty tiring to do cardio at the gym with a mask), there are other restrictions. Parents aren't allowed on our school campus, we don't have any in-person school events, kids get tested once a week, kids have to stay at 3 feet from each other at school, no wind instrument classes.

> e.g. it's pretty tiring to do cardio at the gym with a mask

Those restrictions are on their way out:

https://abc7news.com/amp/face-masks-mask-mandates-bay-area-i...

> Parents aren't allowed on our school campus, we don't have any in-person school events, kids get tested once a week, kids have to stay at 3 feet from each other at school, no wood wind instrument classes.

Not sure where you are but in my very urban CA city, except for testing which is a very good thing IMO, none of these rules are in place.

This morning, the parent community met for donuts at the elementary school campus, where kids were playing close-contact basketball. The local middle school jazz band - with plenty of wind instruments - played recently at the local street fair as a fundraiser, and it's clear they had been practicing.

Then again, around here vaccine and mask wearing rates are extremely high, so we basically had very little in the way of outbreaks and community transmission. It seems like when a critical majority of people are civically considerate and voluntarily mask and vaccinate, life can go on pretty close to normal.

I'm in Los Angeles.

Isn't the point of doing cardio work to be tired? To stress your lungs and heart? That's why extreme athletes wear masks while doing cardio... I'm sure a little surgical mask isn't as difficult as this:

https://www.trainingmask.com

That's not the main part of my comment.

That's on your school/county. None of those are mandated by the state.

Where are you in CA? Here in the Bay Area, at least East Bay, you have to wear a mask to go shopping. >90% of people at the parks are wearing masks, we can't go into the daycare to pick up our son and the nanny wears a mask all day, you can't sit in a restaurant unless you show your id and paperwork proving you have a vaccine. Heck, I see kids and adults riding their bikes or skateboarding without a helmet or any protection but they have their mask on! Not sure what "normal" meant to you before, but it's definitely not any definition of normal to me, unless you take it that we are going to be living with all of this forever.

> Not sure what "normal" meant to you before, but it's definitely not any definition of normal to me,

I'm in the East Bay, and most of what you have described - people at the park wearing masks, riding bikes or skateboards with masks, nannies wearing masks - are voluntary behaviors not mandated by any authority.

Why does it matter to you what measures others take to protect themselves from the virus voluntarily, and which is totally within their personal liberty to do? Does it offend your sensibilities somehow? Should they not be wearing masks to make you feel like things are "normal" per your definition?

The other cases you raise -retail, restaurant, and daycare - all have very specific risks either due to density or because unvaccinated children are present.

It is "normal" now because I can go shopping or to a restaurant, have a drink at my neighborhood bar, take my kids to school, fly somewhere on vacation, have a gathering in my house, attend public events (Halloween was huge in my neighborhood) - everything I did before the pandemic - with the tiny inconvenience of getting vaccinated and wearing a mask when indoors in public.